10 Career Tips on How to be Found and prized by Job Recruiters.

Judging on extrinsic and skill-based factors is a relatively objective and straightforward exercise. Gauging softer traits such as will or attitude is much, much harder, and takes one-on-one contact, attentive listening, and careful observation. That's why it's important to approach a job interview more as an attitude audition than a question-and-answer period around skills.

Here are ten key questions to help you better understand the intrinsic "why" and "how" behind a person:
1. What is the talk-to-listen ratio? You want people who are self-confident and not afraid to express their views, but if the talk-to-listen ratio is anything north of 60 percent, you want to ask why. Is it because this person is self-important and not interested in learning from others — or just because he is nervous and rambling?

2. Is this an energy-giver or -taker? There is a certain breed of people who just carry with them and unfortunately spread a negative energy. You know who they are. Alternatively, there are those who consistently carry and share a positivity and optimism towards life. There is a Chinese proverb that

Best and Worst careers to take a loan for.

Many university graduates dream of the day they’ll finally clear their Helb loans. Some students enrolled in the parallel degree program also take loans to finance their studies. So, which careers are the best, careers that promise a return on your investment? Which careers are the worst in which to take a loan against? Here are some of the careers we sampled. (Disclaimer: This is merely an opinion and not expert advice).

Best:

Advertising and marketing.
College grads going into advertising and marketing can pay off their loans in a few years. While not all marketing graduates will get top level pay, marketing majors can start working right after they’re done

5 Best internships in Kenya.

The Kenyatta administration has said that it will offer tax rebates to companies that offer internships to young Kenyan graduates that are just out of university. So, which are the Kenyan companies to intern at? Here are five of the best.

1. Bamburi

Want to get lots of experience plus a little pocket money on the side? Then Bamburi is no doubt the place to be. It also encourages female interns to apply, especially in the technical and engineering fields.

2. Google.

Google is known to offer generous monthly stipends, plus you get to go to work in jeans and T-shirts,

10 Great Underrated Careers for 2013.

Most people limit their career choices to the well-known: doctor, lawyer, or engineer. Here are 10 professions that are not only underappreciated, but that offer advantages over the more traditional careers. Here are ten careers that you might want to re-look again and advise someone to pursue.

1. Kindergarten-ECD- teacher. Parents are forking gazillions for their children to study in top notch private kindergarten schools. Whilst in our generation nursery school wasn’t something our parents thought much about, these days it’s different. The fee for top kindergarten schools easily outstrips the fee for many primary schools, and quality teachers at this stage of a child’s development are hard to

5 Career Tips for Women; Lessons from Facebook’s most powerful woman employee.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's No. 2 executive and outspoken voice on the obstacles women face in the corporate world, offers a blueprint for change in her new book "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead."

1. Sit at the table.
Plagued by self-doubt and "feeling like a fraud," women consistently underestimate themselves and their abilities, Sandberg writes. For a host of reasons, women often hold themselves back by literally not sitting at the table where decisions are made. Instead, they choose to watch from the sidelines. She urges institutions and individuals to encourage and promote women. And she encourages women to sit at the table and raise their hands. Men are already doing it, after all.

2. When negotiating, "Think personally, act communally."
Preface salary negotiations by explaining that you know women often get paid less than men, so you are going to "negotiate rather than accept the original offer," she writes. This way, women can position

Budget: Interns to be hired in new scheme.

The government will enter into partnerships with private companies so that experienced graduates can be hired to gain skills and experience. In the budget estimates read on Thursday by The cabinet secretary for Treasury, Henry Rotich, private companies that take in fresh university graduates and

5 Jobs in which Shy People could Excel.

So, you keep to yourself, and are introverted. Small talk. Schmoozing. Networking. Buzz words like these can send shy people into a panic.
The good news is that there are careers out there that don't necessarily require tons of chit-chat or after-hour networking.

Then, these careers are likely to be the best fit for you.

1. Accountant.

Sitting behind a computer crunching numbers isn’t exactly going to endear you many people, it is? Striking small talk in the loos with fellow colleague from the marketing department will most likely be a

Malaysia Government scholarships now Open.

Malaysia establishes First Lady of Kenya scholarship Fund - Nairobi June 11, 2013 PPS

Binary University of Management and Entrepreneurship of Malaysia has set up Binary-First Lady of Kenya Scholarship Fund to provide financial assistance to bright Kenyan students to pursue postgraduate courses.

The establishment of the Scholarship Fund is part of the initiatives by Kenya and Malaysia to further

SKA offers rare opportunity for African scientists to shine on a global scale.

The Square Kilometer Array- SKA project offers African scientists a rare opportunity to shine on a global scale. The project to be based in South Africa, will peek into the conditions of the universe, and attempt to verify how the universe came into existence. Thousands of radio telescopes will be spread around the desert parts of South Africa, eventually occupying a collecting area of one square kilometer. Parts of the telescopes will be built in eight African countries, including Namibia, Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Ghana, Mauritius, and Madagascar.

Medicine and engineering students to pay higher fees than Arts students.

Public University students will no longer pay the same fees in three months time, The permanent secretary for education, Joseph Kaimenyi has said. Previously, all students in the regular degree programs would have paid the same amount of fees, regardless of how cost intensive their course would have been. The new system of payment, known as’ differential unit payment’ will see fees for medicine students rise by as much as five times, if figures from parallel degree programs are anything to go by.

Five Career Lessons from Big brother the Chase.

While many view the big brother Africa Chase game as pure entertainment, the reality is that it’s a game about power. It’s a game of love, of betrayal, of scheming, of pain, of bitterness, all enroute to the prize of $300,000 (kshs25 million). Here are five career lessons from big brother.

1. Strategy.

When Denzel from Uganda was evicted, he said that he wished he would have hidden his strategy, so he wouldn’t be seen as a threat. Strong candidates are likely to be nominated by their fellow housemates for being a ‘threat’, while weak housemates are likely to be nominated by their fellow housemates for being ‘boring’ and not bringing anything to the table. Just like in an office, a strong

How to improve your job prospects as a college student.

It’s that time of year when college students pack up their dorm rooms and head home for the holidays. With their eyes focused on next September, they put together a resume and pound the pavement to find a job — ANY job.

Many of these jobs will be a less-than-enjoyable means to an end so that students can scrape together enough money for next semester. If your holiday job doesn’t fit your idea of the perfect job and it’s easy to adopt the mindset “I just need to get through the next few months and I won’t have to do this ever again.”

It’s easy to take a short term view, but I’d like to reframe what you think of that summer job and how you can use it to help you improve your future job prospects.

Think further ahead
Think about what will happen in your life when you graduate from college in just a couple of years: You’ll probably need to rent an apartment, furnish it, get a car and pursue your career. You may meet a

HELB to delay disbursing loans.

The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) says students will have to wait for at least one month before the loans are disbursed, as it is waiting an allocation from Treasury. The  budget will be read this week. In earlier proposed moves, HELB had sought to have the minimum allocation per student increased to kshs.40,000 from the current kshs.60,000, to offset rising inflation. Over 90 percent of public University students that apply for HELB loans are usually allocated loans.

The right keywords to use on your CV.

Getting a job is hard anywhere in the world the days. Despite all manner of advice we receive on how to get a job, there is simply no one way of getting a job. Stellar grades might work; powerful networks might work, so too is exemplary work and leadership skills. However, increasingly, the all important reason is that your CV doesn’t have the right keywords.

Companies’ nowadays automate the CV screening process by using specialized software to look for certain keywords. These applicant-tracking systems, which are used by almost every large employer, score candidates based on rough measures like the number of keyword matches between a job

4 of the most successful Mobile apps in Kenya.

An increasing number of young Kenyans are developing software, apps and cellphone-based programmes to help small-scale farmers increase their agricultural skills and yields. At the most recent PivotEast, East Africa’s premier mobile start-ups competition and conference, held in June 2012, three out of five finalists were young entrepreneurs who had created agrarian apps.
In whole, Kenya is proving to be a hot ground for mobile innovations, here are some of the five most well known.

1. M-Farm.
M-Farm is one of many services that have been developed in the last five years on the back of Kenya’s lead in information and communications technology (ICT), particularly mobile phones. With more than 6 400 farmers in its database, farmers couldn’t have asked for anything better. Three young software developers in their early to mid-twenties started the company in 2011 to provide market prices to

The 10 Least Stressful Jobs of 2013.

Every job comes with stress, but some are just easier on the mind and body.
Career site CareerCast.com compiled a list of the least stressful jobs of 2013, comparing 11 factors like travel, public visibility, competitiveness, growth potential, deadlines and physical demands. The lower the score, the more relaxing the job.

Which jobs are the most laid-back?

1. University professor/ Lecturer
It’s true they have to create course work, give lectures, put in office hours, and grade hundreds of papers, but long summer vacations and seasonal breaks help wash away job-related stress. However, those looking to break into the field face serious competition, and teachers without the comfort of tenure may feel a bit more on edge.

2. Seamstress/tailor
Tailoring is mostly a low-stress job in a quiet work environment, but that’s probably not so true for those sewing costumes for big-budget productions with strict deadlines. However, CareerCast

5 Things That Could Hurt Your Career- But You Didn’t Know.

Some of the ways you could damage your career are obvious - poor work performance, shouting at your boss and stealing from the company are all pretty well-known career-harmers. But there are less obvious things you might be doing that can also damage your career without you realizing it, and they're worth paying attention to.
Here are five ways you might harm your work progression that might not be so obvious.

1. Staying at one job for too long. You might think that loyalty to an employer would be valued, and it is, but there's also a point where staying too long at one company can raise questions for future prospective employers about how you'll adapt to new environments.
(You can combat this, however, by demonstrating adaptability: Showing a progression in responsibilities and job titles, and finding other ways to show that you're flexible, open to change and don't have an insular viewpoint.)

2. Being too good at something you don't like. In general, the better you are at something, the more

10 Highest-Paying Blue-Collar Jobs

We tend to associate hefty paychecks with briefcases, neckties and lab coats – but it turns out there’s plenty of money to be earned by those who sport hard hats and coveralls.
This may be surprising, but plenty of talented and skilled blue-collar workers earn six figures doing electrical work, repair jobs, and other labor-intensive trades.

What defines a blue-collar job? The American Heritage Dictionary says, “Of or relating to wage earners,

Joint admissions board (JAB) to be disbanded.

The Joint admissions board- JAB, will be disbanded, as the Ministry of education has sought kshs.100 million to carry out reforms in the admissions body. Currently, JAB is responsible for admissions to all the country’s public universities and university colleges. JAB will now be replaced by the Kenya Universities Admissions and Placement board, which will also incorporate private universities, and admission of students through the self sponsored program, more commonly known as parallel degree program.

JAB had come under criticism for admitting students to courses they had not selected in the first place. This year, the admissions body changed the admission criteria, and incorporated a student’s overall mark, in addition to the weighted cluster points. This means that if two students both get As in all

How to stay safe on public wi-fi hotspots

With the number of Wi-Fi hotspots in Kenya increasing, it's getting easier to connect your laptop, smartphone or tablet to a public wireless broadband connection. But due to our eagerness to check emails while sipping coffee at Java, or while taking a ride on a Rongai Matatu with wi-fi (true story), we often forget about the substantial security and privacy-risks presented by insecure connections. Here’s how you can protect your privacy while using public Wi-Fi hotspots.

Connection type
It's always a good idea to understand what type of W-Fi connection you're accessing, so you can better adjust your online behaviour. The most insecure network type is an unencrypted network, which basically leaves your data completely exposed. An unencrypted network will also mean someone

Vast majority of Job candidates lie in interviews- New study shows.

81 percent of people lie in about themselves in job interviews, a new study by the University of Massachusetts shows. The more extroverted candidates were more apt to tell lies and untruths. When the job requirements were more technical, deception decreased, because applicants ere trying to compensate for their lack of job required skills. On average, job candidates tell about 2 lies per a 15 minute interview.

Konza Techno City- Does it have what it takes to succeed?

Unless you have landed from space, then you might have heard about Konza techno- city, which will be located in Machakos, about 50 km from the Nairobi city centre. However, here are the ingredients to make the technology succeed. But question is, are they there?

1. Right Talent.

Talent is abundant in Kenya, as there are many talented Kenyan IT specialists and programmers. Kenyan Universities continue to churn thousands of graduates, so, this talent will always be there.

2. Access to Capital.

Are there enough sources of capital to fund promising ventures? This is where things go wrong. The venture capital industry in Kenya is still very nascent, and even then, many are still reluctant to fund

Eight ways to make your internship experience great.

A great internship could be a great learning experience, helping you learn invaluable skills, as well as build a good network that will help you get a job, and build a great career in future. Here are eight ways your manager can contribute in making your internship experience great.

The manager should take you for lunch on the first day. It's the right thing to do and it sets the right tone, messaging that your manager is excited to have you on board. It will also give you a chance to get to know one another. Even better, the manager could invite some of her colleagues along.

The manager should set aside one hour to talk about her upcoming projects. The manager should give an overview of the organization and detail what your first assignment will be. Moreover,

Opinion: Kenya’s university double-intake a complete mess.

By Mutai Eric: Standard newspaper:

The move by the Ministry of Higher Education and the Joint Admissions Board to admit to university two groups of candidates in the year 2011 was initially plausible, but just two years down the line; it has proved to a worse experiment on the 8-4-4 system.

What is the need of joining university a year earlier for only one academic year then go for more than one-year break?
This is exactly what is happening in our public universities, forcing one to take more than the stipulated years

4 Interview Questions that will catch you off guard.

Every employer can tell stories about an applicant who sounded like an A-player at the interview but ended up a failure once at work. Good candidates prepare, of course, but rehearsed interview answers can make it hard to separate the winners from the spinners. Gauging an applicant's true colors and skill level in an hour is certainly tricky. But there are ways to take interviewees out of their comfort zones, snap them off their prepared script, and encourage the kind of candor that will enable you to find the best fits.


For starters, here are some variations on the standard interview questions, and the reasons they work better:

1. Rather than ask, "Where do you want to be in five years?" ask "What don't you want to be doing five years from now?" Applicants will be ready to speak in positive terms about their careers and where they see them going. Asking them where they don't want to go can reveal far more, because they're

Twelve Rules for New Graduates.

What advice would you give new college graduates about launching themselves into the workforce? Here are 12 tips for new graduates that are just leaving colleges and universities.

1. What you learned in college is a foundation for future learning, nothing more. As William Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest, "What's past is prologue." This is not to minimize your accomplishments or to downplay the importance of graduating from college. Just take care not to view your degree as a destination. What you learned is important. What you learned about how to learn is essential; it's the foundation for your life-long success.

2. Be someone that your colleagues want to work with. No one wants to work with someone who is unpleasant or unreliable or self-serving. "Attitude," said Winston Churchill, "is a little thing that makes a big

4 Ways You Can Improve Your Soft Skills.

Who wouldn't want a higher level of emotional intelligence or soft skills? Studies have shown that a high emotional quotient boosts career success, entrepreneurial potential, leadership talent, health, relationship satisfaction, humor, and happiness. Here are ways to improve your EQ, aka soft skills.

1. Your level of EQ is firm, but not rigid. Our ability to identify and manage our own and others' emotions is fairly stable over time, influenced by our early childhood experiences and even genetics. That does not mean we cannot change it, but, realistically, long-term improvements will require a great deal of dedication and guidance.
Everyone can change, but few people are seriously willing to try. Think about the worst boss you ever had

Beware of Foreign Degrees: CUE warns.

The Commission for University Education- CUE, has warned students to be wary of foreign degrees. Speaking at Eldoret Polytechnic, CUE secretary, Prof. David Some, said that some students were being duped into enrolling in fake colleges overseas. Cases of fake colleges have been on the increase.

Last year, Daily Nation reported that Kampala International University degrees could not be accepted in Kenya, a matter that the university vehemently disputed.

At around the time of elections, Bishop Dr. Margaret Wanjiru was banned from contesting for the Nairobi

6 Career Tips that you should pay attention to- But don’t.

Rising to the top of your career is a journey that could take many years. However, for some, they manage to reach the pinnacle of their careers in just a short time. Here are six ways you can do it.

1. Learn from smart people. There is so much to learn. This is true for people just entering the workforce as well as for those closing in on retirement. Great leaders realize they don't know all the answers and are aware of their weaknesses and strengths. Learn from the best peace-keeper, the best negotiator, the best

5 Unusual Jobs That Pay Surprisingly High Salaries.

We all know that most doctors, lawyers, and CEOs make good money--but you may be surprised to learn that wedding planners, funeral service managers, food vendors, and personal shoppers can also pull in pretty good money, and what’s more, some of these jobs don't require you to sit in an office eight hours a day, five days a week.

Odd jobs can definitely bring in a good income, but often it requires a great deal of creativity, diligence, and a willingness to take risks, Certainly there are high costs to pay for the education and training required to become a doctor or a lawyer, but if you're a bright and hardworking person, either one is a pretty